Utility Planet is the official blog for the column of the same name in The Spectrum Monitor. It replaces Utility World in the discontinued Monitoring Times magazine. Utilities are all VLF/LF/MF/HF (and sometimes low-band VHF) radio communications except broadcasting, CB, and non-emergency amateur. If you understood the last sentence, you know enough to read this blog.

Friday, October 30, 2015

1) A reminder of our new frequencies starting this weekend: Saturday
0930-1000 UTC on 5910 kHz. And Saturday 1600-1630 UTC on 17580 kHz. The
complete schedule is below.

2) It's beginning to be that time of the year when the Saturday
0930-1000 UTC broadcast on 5910 kHz may be audible in Europe. I've
already had a report from Italy for the old 5745 kHz frequency during
that broadcast. Reception will improve as we approach
the winter solstice.

3) If you have an Android device, the new receive-only, decode-only
version of the AndFlmsg app, called TIVAR (Text and Images Via Analog
Radio), is available here:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/fldigi/files/AndFlmsg/TIVAR/

Music appropriate for Halloween will sneak up on you towards of the end of this weekend's VOA Radiogram.

Here is the lineup for VOA Radiogram, program 135, 31 October and 1 November 2015, oday's program, all in MFSK32:

1:33 Program preview
2:43 New frequencies 3:08 Russia Internet update* 7:33 Freedom of the Net Report*15:03 US military blimp breaks loose*20:02 Pumpkins more popular in USA*26:36 Closing announcements*

Some of you have asked about the CW (Morse code) at the end of each
VOA Radiogram. It's GRV -- the three-letter abbreviation for the
Greenville, North Carolina, transmitter site. Abbreviations for other
sites can be found in the 2015
World Radio TV Handbook, pp. 660-662.

Thank you for your reports from last weekend. I'm compiling the
gallery from program 128 (12-13 Sept) and will try to send out
the responses this weekend.

Friday, October 23, 2015

Most shortwave
broadcast stations change many of their frequencies twice a year to
correspond with seasonal changes in propagation. The B15 frequency
season begins Sunday, 25 October. Because the two frequency
changes for VOA Radiogram occur during Saturday broadcasts, these will
not be effective until 31 October. See the old and new frequencies
below.

VOA Radiogram this
weekend will mostly be in our usual MFSK32 mode, but if reception is
difficult, there will be one item on Olivia 32-2000.

Here is the lineup for VOA Radiogram, program 134, 24-25 October 2015, all in MFSK32 except where noted:

1:33 Program preview (now)

2:43 New VOA Radiogram and VOA English frequencies*

6:43 Press freedom in Turkey*

8:52 Cassini images of Saturn moon Enceladus*

14:52 Olivia 32-2000: Heavy rainfall favors grass**

19:17 MFSK32: Closing announcements*

28:13 Olivia 64-2000: Transmission schedule

* with image

** If your RxID is
on (green), the RSID should automatically change the mode to Olivia
32-2000. If it does not, in Fldigi: Op Mode > Olivia > Custom >
Bandwith:2000, Tones:32.

The Mighty KBC
will transmit a minute of MFSK32 Sunday at 0130 UTC (Saturday 9:30 pm
EDT) on 7395 kHz, via Germany. This is part
of KBC’s broadcast to North America, now Saturday 2300 to Sunday 0200
UTC on the new 7395 kHz. Please send reports for KBC reception and
decoding to Eric:
themightykbc@gmail.com .

Thanks for your
reports from last weekend. I’m now putting together the gallery from
program 127 and will respond to reports from that weekend (many weeks
ago) during this weekend.

[UPDATED 2015-10-23 @ 1600 UTC] An emergency net has
been established on 7060 kHz (LSB) from Manzanillo in the Mexican state
of Colima, in anticipation of the powerful Hurricane Patricia, which is
threatening Mexico’s Pacific Coast. According to Zian Aguirre, XE1ATZ,
the emergency net will also be using 14,120 and 21,120 kHz, and he asked
the Amateur Radio community to keep all three frequencies clear for
emergency traffic. States of emergency are in effect for three Mexican
states.

Omar Alvarez, XE1AO, a faculty member at the University of Colima,
initially activated the net on 7060 kHz from the University, which has
its own amateur station. He said other stations had checked in from the
capital city of Colima.

“We don’t have any damage at the moment, just rain since yesterday
evening,” Alvarez told ARRL.

“We are expecting the first effects at 1500
local time. Now I am at home. In the last hour I have had nine stations
report in on HF and three on VHF, but without any emergency reports.”

He further reported that major grocery outlets in Manzanillo were
closing this morning, although they would remain open in Colima, where
other economic activity has been shut down. After 1300 local time, the
water supply in Manzanillo would shut down as well. “Most of the
tourists were evacuated from all the coastal hotels,” he said.

The National Hurricane Center in Miami is calling the Category 5
storm “potentially catastrophic,” as it heads toward landfall in
southwestern Mexico. As of 1500 UTC, the storm was located about 125
miles southwest of Manzanillo and 195 miles south of Cabo Corrientes,
Mexico. Evacuation of some 60,000 residents in the storm’s path is under
way.

The International Amateur Radio Union (IARU) Region 2 Area C
Emergency Coordinator Arnie Coro, CO2KK, has alerted emergency
coordinators within Amateur Radio range of Mexico that Hurricane
Patricia is packing winds of up to 200 MPH. “Preparations to deal with
the huge storm should be completed by now,” he said. “I expect Mexican
radio amateurs to be operating in the area of 40 meters used for
emergency traffic. Please be on the alert in the frequency range between
7050 and 7100 kHz for possible emergency related traffic from Mexico.”

The National Hurricane Center said in its 1500 UTC summary, “On the
forecast track, the center of Patricia should cross the coast in the
hurricane warning area late this afternoon or early this evening. After
landfall, the center of Patricia is expected to move quickly
north-northeastward across western and northern Mexico.”

Hurricane Patricia is the most powerful storm ever recorded by the
National Hurricane Center. The storm is expected to generate torrential
rains and flooding. The storm is moving to the north at about 10 MPH.
The National Hurricane Center has reported that the minimum central
barometric pressure is at an extraordinary 25.99 inches.

This is an exercise done yearly by Canadian Forces, CFARS, and other organizations as a test of HF interoperability. It's run kind of like a contest, and it brings out a lot of military stations using special call signs.

While the announced dates are October 22-23, many stations were sounding in ALE and working each other in voice from the morning of October 21 (U.S. time) on.

Here are the first few paragraphs of the official announcement made last August:

EXERCISE
INSTRUCTION FOR

EXERCISE
NOBLE SKYWAVE 2015

1.SITUATION. The Communications and
Electronics (C&E) Branch is holding its annual Professional Development
week at Canadian Forces Base Kingston. 21 Electronic Warfare Regiment (21 EW
Regt) on behalf of the C&E Branch will use this opportunity in order to
conduct Ex NOBLE SKYWAVE (Ex NS). The exercise will see voice and data links
between domestic and international teams via High Frequency (HF) sky-wave
propagation. Invited to participate are all Regular, Reserve, or Auxiliary Force
units with HF radio communications from Canada, the United Kingdom, the United
States of America, Australia, and New Zealand. Members of the Canadian Forces
Affiliate Radio System (CFARS) and the US Military Auxiliary Radio System
(MARS) are also invited to participate.

2.MISSION. 21 Electronic Warfare Regiment will
organize and facilitate Ex NOBLE SKYWAVE 21-22 October 2015 in order to provide
a venue to confirm HF interoperability amongst the international community.

3.EXECUTION

a.Concept
of Operations

(1)Intent. Building on the success of
previous iterations of Ex NS and the US led QPNX, I intend to leverage the
training opportunity provided by C&E week to conduct a Radio Frequency (RF)
training exercise that emphasizes HF sky-wave propagation to domestic and
international teams;

(2)Scheme
of Maneuver.
Within a competition construct, participating teams will earn points for
successful contacts with other participants. Teams are responsible for their
own respective broadcast detachments, stations, sites, and personnel. The
Officer in Charge (OIC) will retain responsibility for the overall coordination
and conduct of the competition. Throughout the entire exercise, individual
units are responsible for the setup, tear-down, and manning of their
detachments.

The Olivia 32-2000
segment usually (but not always) showed improvement over the MFSK32 text
in difficult reception conditions. For most of you, reception is good
enough that the MFSK32 text decodes 100%, and
the Olivia 32-2000 is therefore not needed.

VOA Radiogram this
weekend will be all MFSK32 except for the transmission schedule on
Olivia 64-2000, mixed with the closing music.

Here is the lineup for VOA Radiogram, program 133, 17018 October 2015, all in MFSK32 except where noted:

The Mighty KBC will transmit a minute of MFSK32 Sunday at
this new time: 0130 UTC (Saturday 9:30 pm EDT) on the new frequency
of 7395 kHz, via Germany. This weekend, the KBC broadcast to North
America shifts to 2300-0200 UTC on the new 7395 kHz frequency. Eric
would appreciate reports for this new frequency:
themightykbc@gmail.com .

Thank you for the
many reports received for last week’s VOA Radiogram. I am now compiling
the gallery for program 126 and will be sending those out over the
weekend. I provide a link the gallery at Dropbox
rather than attaching the pdf galley because it saves me several
keystrokes, and it prevent a large attachment in your email inbox. You
do not need to be registered with Dropbox to download the gallery. If
you are invited to register, just close the box and
proceed with the download.

Friday, October 02, 2015

The good news is that last week's special broadcast to the Notte
Europea dei Ricercatori (European Researchers' Night) in Frascati,
Italy, was heard and decoded well in Frascati and many other places. I
was worried about that 17880 kHz frequency at 1830
UTC, but it propagated nicely over the north Atlantic. See
images as decoded in Frascati and
photos from the event.

The bad news is that no one responded to the BBG's
request for proposals for the development of a digital mode decoder
app. The deadline was very tight (it was an end-of-fiscal-year gambit)
and the specifications were rather complicated, so the lack of a
response is not a complete surprise.

I hope the developer community can fill the need for a decode-only
app, for PCs and for mobile devices. Please encourage shortwave
broadcasters to try MFSK32 text and images, even if only for a few
minutes a week. This will encourage developers to produce
MKSK32 decoders. Perhaps even receiver manufacturers will take an
interest.

Meanwhile, this weekend, let's hope that Hurricane Joaquin and a
forecast nor'easter do not disrupt broadcasts from the North Carolina
transmitter site.
VOA Radiogram will be all MFSK32 text and images, except for some Olivia 64-2000 mixed with the closing music.